Time Flies
by Kale39
Summary: Eve is lonely. Books aren't known for being the best conversationalists, and Train's off having his own adventures, leaving her to feel left behind.


_CHAPTER 1_

It's funny how time flies when you have something to do everyday. Going to school, having a job, they all make life seem to rush by. But after a year of not seeing Train Hartnet, Eve was starting to seriously miss him. School had interested her for as long as it took to read all the books in the library, but that only took her half of the previous school year. Sven was always off on jobs, trying to earn enough money to take care of her. The other kids at school sometimes talked to her, but she didn't have any one she was particularly close to there. To put it simply, Eve was lonely.

Train had left to live on the road. At first, he stopped in to see them frequently, but as time went by, his visits started getting farther and farther apart from one another, until he stopped coming all together. Sven had told Eve that it was no big deal, he just had things to do or couldn't afford to keep coming all the time, but Eve felt as if he had forgotten them.

"Hey, Eve, whatcha spacin' off for?" Eve turned to look at the boy who had addressed her. She thought his name was Marco, but she couldn't be sure. She quickly glanced around the room, suddenly becoming aware of the other students packing their bag.

"Oh." She grabbed her jacket and slipped it on before reaching a pale hand up to smooth her hair down. Her magenta eyes flickered over to the clock as she wondered if she would have time to stop at the public library before going shopping for dinner. She sighed; it wouldn't be wise to chance it. Grabbing her school bag, the small girl headed silently out the room.

"Well, hey there. How was school?" Sven smiled and waved from his seat in a small, tattered-looking brown armchair. Eve had suggested getting a new one, but Sven had grown attached to the beat up thing. She secretly wondered if it was because he felt connected to it, on account of how old they both were. As if he heard her insult, Sven frowned.

"It was fine." Eve smiled lightly before turning and heading to her bedroom. She shut the door after her and laid the school bag down on her bed. Turning to her small bookshelf, she picked out a new book and sat down on her bed. Flipping it open, she started to read some story about a nerdy wizard.

About a half an hour into her book, Eve glanced at the clock. It was about time to start on dinner. She set the book carefully back into its place on the bookshelf and made her way through the house to the kitchen. The kitchen and the living room were connected, with a counter separating the two. Sven was still sitting in his chair, watching TV. As Eve got the ingredients out, she wondered why he was already home. He almost never was home right after school. Shrugging it off, Eve continued to wander around the kitchen preparing dinner.

Just as dinner was finished and Eve had started to set out plates, Sven turned the TV off and grinned at her as if he knew something she didn't. She watched him curiously, waiting for him to say whatever it was that he suddenly seemed dying to say. He cleared his throat and put on a cool look, as if that would make the earlier goofy grin disappear from her mind.

"Eve, you might want to set out a third plate. We're having a guest tonight." Eve's eyes widened a little. They rarely had guests.

"Who is it? Rinslet?" Eve tilted her head curiously. Rinslet did seem to enjoy coming around an awful lot. Sometimes she'd sleep over, too. Eve remembered reading something about that in one of her books, but when she had asked Rinslet and Sven about it, they feigned indifference to the topic. Sven grinned widely once more.

"Yeah, she has something to talk to you about." Eve nodded, turning back to the stove. Her chest hurt a little. Disappointment, maybe? She sighed and shook it off.

Later that night, after Rinslet had left and she had turned in for the night, Eve starred at the ceiling, thinking things over. Why had she felt disappointed about Rinslet coming over? She didn't really expect that Train was the one coming, right? Eve sighed, thinking about Rinslet's proposal. She wanted to take Eve to a big city with her, to go shopping and spend time together. Something about wanting to get closer to her. Eve rolled over, hugging her pillow, and closed her eyes. As she slowly drifted off to sleep, she almost didn't hear her door slowly open. Even with the noise of a nighttime intruder, Eve didn't move. It took a whispered voice in her ear to wake her completely up.

"Hey, there, Princess."


End file.
